>> well, the germ of the idea was a council of action, a local council election that was subverted by teenagers which was a device to expose certain secrets, yes, that was the basic idea, and i was excited by that idea, because it was going to give me an opportunity to explore a lot of things that are important to me, and things that obsess me frankly. >> rose: like? >> for example, i just talked about the fact that i was in a very precarious situation for a few year i was probably as poor as you can go without being homeless in the uk which is not to say friend and family didn't help me because they did, but, you know, it was tough, and. >> rose: and you were writing a book and had to depend on the government? >> well, yes, i did, although i was working part-time, the law at that time was you could earn up to a very small amount per week without forfeiting housing benefit which was the thing that was keeping us homed so i worked up to atmou, ihad clerical job in a church at one point, so i -- and then i was teaching, but we were still existing partly on benefits, i couldn't wholly su